An Honors Thesis Can be Anything You Want it to Be

An Honors Thesis Can be Anything You Want it to Be

Jackie Homan, ’18, used her Crown Award Thesis funding to turn a two-year project into more than an essay: she published a book! Her work is entitled “On the Record: Notes from 20 Powerful Women in Journalism,” and has a corresponding website, ontherecordbook.com. Her writing is aimed at high school and college students who want to learn about and make a difference in journalism and digital media. The book and website consist of interviews with women in those fields with a focus on ideas — how they’re generated, how they become successful and how they shape the changing industry, with additional resources and information for students. The book will be self-published, printed and distributed to high schools and libraries in the Syracuse area, and the website will be promoted online, especially to students and journalism social network groups.

For Jackie, the best part of doing the Thesis was seeing the final project after working on it for nearly two years. The funding allowed her to print dozens of copies of the finished product so that she can distribute them to schools and libraries. Just completing the book was an accomplishment in itself, but the funding ensure that she can share the book with others.

Her advice for other Honors students: “Really dream big with the idea. Honors Theses can be anything you want them to be, so think hard about how to take your ideas and make them even more powerful.”